Officer Shoots Armed Man Near White House Fence

By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: February 8, 2001

Correction Appended

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7—
An accountant who worked for the Internal Revenue Service years ago and has been engaged in disputes with the agency fired shots outside the White House fence today and after a 10-minute standoff was shot in the knee by a Secret Service agent, officials said.

The incident sent the police and heavily armed Secret Service agents swarming across the White House grounds and into the surrounding streets about 11:30 a.m. White House officials said President Bush, who was exercising in the residence area of the White House at the time, was never in danger. After being informed of the gunfire by the Secret Service, he resumed exercising, Ari Fleischer, his press secretary, said.

The shooting by the South Lawn revived a debate over how close the public should be able to get to the White House and whether Pennsylvania Avenue running along the north front of the presidential mansion should be reopened to traffic.

The avenue was closed to traffic -- but not to pedestrians like today's gunman -- in 1995, after the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. But President Bush promised during the campaign to review the White House security and the Republican Party platform called explicitly for reopening the street. Some Republicans said today that the shooting was likely to slow their push but Mr. Fleischer said that the president had not yet made a decision on the future of the street.

The man was identified today by the United States Park Police, which patrols the area just outside the White House gates, as Robert W. Pickett of Evansville, Ind. He was described as a 47-year-old who briefly attended West Point, and was later dismissed or resigned under pressure in the 1980's from a job at the I.R.S. He is still in court seeking reinstatement, court records show.

A Secret Service official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was no indication he had ever threatened an American president. Nor was he on any list of individuals who might pose a threat. Those familiar with Mr. Pickett's court history said he had acknowledged a history of mental illness in his submissions.

Secret Service officials said they had recovered a five-shot .38-caliber handgun from the scene, along with several shell casings. But there were conflicting reports about exactly which direction Mr. Pickett may have been firing.

According to the White House and the accounts of tourists in the area, several shots were fired just before 11:30 a.m. in the rough direction of the White House. A nearby patrol car immediately pulled up, and an officer had a long conversation with the shooter, who remained outside the fence, while agents swarmed across the lawn and shooed away tourists, including some evacuated from the White House during the incident.

From the spot where the shooting took place, tourists on the street outside the fence have a clear but distant view of the main part of the White House, including some of the upper floor windows of the residence. The windows are all bulletproof.

About an hour and a half earlier, Mr. Bush was on the South Lawn with families that he said would benefit from his tax-cut plan. They met in an area largely obscured by strategically placed bushes, trees and earthen berms that also block any sight of the Oval Office.

Mr. Pickett left the I.R.S. more than a decade ago -- it is unclear whether he was fired or resigned first -- and then sought to get his job back. His lawyer in that suit, Joseph Yocum, told The Associated Press, ''They said he wasn't doing his job properly and having trouble with attendance.''

Mr. Pickett lost that court action. Later, acting as his own lawyer, he filed several suits against the I.R.S., his supervisor there and the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents agency workers. Some of those suits were dismissed, but one against the I.R.S. remains in court. On Jan. 19, the day before Mr. Bush's inauguration, a federal magistrate in Cincinnati said he would consider a motion by the agency to dismiss the suit and gave Mr. Pickett 30 days to show why the suit should not be dismissed, according to documents from the Federal District Court.

In 1991, after he left the I.R.S., Mr. Pickett took a course taught by Mehmet C. Kocakulah, a professor of accounting at University of Southern Indiana. ''He dropped the course abruptly,'' Mr. Kocakulah said. ''He came to me and said, 'I can't do it anymore. I have to drop.' ''

The professor described Mr. Pickett as a ''very gentle guy'' who helped his father, who died several years ago, prepare taxes. ''I don't think he would hurt anybody,'' Mr. Kocakulah said.

It is not clear when he arrived in Washington, but the police said that by this morning he was standing by the South Lawn fence, brandishing a gun. The police and uniformed Secret Service officers urged him to drop the gun. It is unclear why one officer decided to shoot him in the knee, but according to some accounts Mr. Pickett alternately threatened to shoot himself and others.

Dan Halpert, a medical student from Flushing, Queens, who was visiting Washington as a tourist, said armed Secret Service agents appeared all of a sudden near the White House gate. ''It was pretty scary,'' said Mr. Halpert, 24. ''They were fairly aggressive in telling us to get down and get away.''

The police cordoned off the area. Mr. Halpert said that after the commotion, he heard a single gunshot and then saw an ambulance pull up and take Mr. Pickett to George Washington University Hospital for treatment of his wound. Officials at the hospital said that Mr. Pickett was subdued and silent despite the pain caused by the single shot to his right knee, and that doctors recommended a psychiatric examination. Mr. Pickett was listed tonight in serious condition after two hours of surgery to remove the bullet.

The closing of the street by President Clinton upon the recommendation of the Secret Service after other confrontations outside the mansion has led to considerable traffic disruption in downtown Washington, and city officials have sought to reverse the action. But the Secret Service has strongly argued in favor of keeping the avenue closed, saying it sharply reduces the risk of a car bomb explosion within close range of the White House offices.

Photos: Robert W. Pickett of Evansville, Ind., in a 1971 school photograph. (Associated Press); Secret Service officers patrolling the White House grounds after a shooting yesterday morning near the South Lawn. The incident renewed debate over how close the public should be allowed to get to the White House. (Associated Press) Map of the surroundings of the White House shows location of shooting: From the south, tourists have a distant, obstructed White House view. On the north, Pennsylvania Avenue has been closed to traffic since 1995.

Correction: February 9, 2001, Friday A map yesterday with an article about the shooting of an armed man outside the White House fence mislabeled a neighboring building. It is the Department of the Treasury -- not a museum, though it includes one.